Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants 2006

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Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants 2006

Two-year old Providence soared to the top of Chowhound’s Ultimate Los Angeles Restaurants list for 2006, racking up more than 50% more votes than the runner-up, evergreen Spago. Chef Michael Cimarusti’s achievement is particularly notable since chowhounds are notoriously food obsessed and virulently anti-trendy. It's safe to say that even the most jaded New Yorker would delight in Providence’s Le Bernadin-class seafood.

Chowhounds were asked to list, in rank order, their top five restaurants in LA County where they would take houndly out-of-town visitors or would recommend for a special occasion. Evaluations were based 75% on food and 25% on everything else.

The votes were tabulated as follows. Restaurants were given 5 – 1 points (5 for top ranked, etc.) Restaurants with the same number of points are listed below by number of votes, then alphabetically. After each restaurant’s name are total points, followed by (# votes/ # "1st choice" votes) for restaurants receiving multiple votes or one "1st choice" vote.

Voter turnout by hounds was down a bit this year, with 95 ballots submitted compared to 104 last year. A total of 147 different restaurants (compared to a whopping 214 last year) received votes. Given the greatly increased participation on the new and improved chowhound.com board, the drop is a bit surprising. Perhaps the tacit understanding that voters should have dined at least three times (once recently) in a restaurant to vote for it dampened turnout. In addition, the trigger-happy moderators’ heavy-handed disclaimer of responsibility may have also dampened enthusiasm.

Newcomers scored impressively. Mozza, the Batali-Silverton nouveau pizzeria that opened softly in December, managed to impress those few hounds patient and persistent enough to get a table to enter the poll in the top 20. Cut, Puck’s cutting-edge steakery, blasted onto the list at #8. And Hatfield’s, chef Quinn and dessert maven Karen’s eponymous fresh French eclectic, hit the chart at #12 with a bullet.

Some favorites shuttered – sadly – this year, notably Bastide, Le Dome, Angelique Café, and Norman’s, which also became the first LA restaurant to receive Ultimate votes posthumously.

Turnover this year was staggering, with virtually the entire mid- to end-of-the-list changing over. Yet, the core of fine dining remains solidly along Third, Beverly and Melrose, and our very own treasure trove of Asian ethic joints of a phenomenal variety of sizes and specialties remains in the San Gabriel Valley.

Please print this so that when Uncle Chuck and Auntie Essie ask where the best upscale Mexican food is in the city, you can whip out your 2006 Ultimate Restaurants list and send them off to Babita. They’ll thank you.